IEA Says more Clean Energy Investment Needed to Avoid the Worst Climate Impacts

I think this is a great example of the shortsightedness of alternatives to carbon pricing:

“Sometimes, we get a little parochial in Canada — we think that the whole world is entirely focused on tar sands as the biggest problem. What we’re saying here is that it’s one of the biggest problems.” Canada’s oil sands are midway down the pack of the world’s climate change villains, according to a new Greenpeace report ranking potential carbon emissions from the globe’s top energy developments.

The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. With power generation still dominated by coal and governments failing to increase investment in clean energy, top climate scientists have said that the target of keeping the global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius this century is slipping out of reach.

The chart above shows the significant reduction in coal's share of total U.S.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in New York today, pitching Canadian energy prospects to a leading U.S. think-tank. At the same time, critics of Canada’s green record are taking to the Internet to warn that the Alberta oil sands are an environmental threat.

ETF Database submits: Alternative energy remains a fast growing market segment not only in the world of ETFs, but in terms of total investment as well. Since 2005, investment in clean energy increased by 230% to $162 billion in 2009. Echoing similar trends occurring throughout the global economy, emerging markets have stepped up their push to become leaders in the development of alternative energy technologies.